The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hosted a mandatory ‘sensitivity training’ in the summer of 2011 for its employees. OK, no harm, no foul so far. We do need to be sensitive to one another, and if you’re going to work for the government, and therefore represent the government, there should be some training involved for sensitive issues.
However, this training session had nothing to do with sensitivity, unless by sensitivity, you mean insulting the pilgrims. Video was finally released this week of the so-called “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program, and the footage is ... well, let’s just say it’s disconcerting at best.
The head of the USDA, Tom Vilsack, sent a memo to all department employees describing the training as part of a “new era of civil rights.” It was led by self-proclaimed “citizen of the world” Samuel Betances on USDA premises. In 2011 and 2012, the federal government paid Betances and his firm nearly $200,000 for taking part in the “cultural transformation” program.
So what was this great cultural training for sensitivity all about and what does it have to do with the pilgrims? Betances asked the participants (remember attendance was mandatory for all USDA employees) to chant, “The pilgrims were illegal aliens.”
So that happened. Our government spent $200,000 of taxpayer money to compare people that break the law by entering our country illegally to the brave pioneers that risked everything to come to a new world for religious freedom, democracy, and prosperity.
Look, we can have a real discussion about the big old mess that is our current system of immigration. Fact of the matter is that we do need reform -- big time. But spewing nonsense about how the pilgrims were illegal aliens because they “never gave their passports to the Indians” is ridiculous.
In fact, you could even argue that that phrase itself was culturally insensitive. They were Native Americans, not Indians. Indians come from India. Get your cultures right, USDA.
Do you think this cultural sensitivity training was insensitive?
Image via JudicialWatch/YouTube
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Comments 34
Haha. Crazy. Yet predictable. Nice to know ego-/ethnocentrism is alive and well in 'America.' Oh, that's an Italian's name during the Spanish exploration here. smh
I NEVER said there were just a bunch of savage heathens running around. Of course, individual tribes had a hierarchy and some form of self governance. But let's not forget that they did go to war with each other as well. But there was not an established government to rule the land; there was no rule or law that made them cohabitate here and share the territory. Yea, perhaps you could use a history lesson on colonialism.
Also, native American's are said to be descendents of people who crossed the Bering Strait from what is now Russia. O_O I guess they are illegal too!
^^ Courtastic (and others)... Yeah, their historical map begins and ends with the plymouth landing. Nevermind those thousands of years of self-ruling societies among multiple nations.
http://www.volokh.com/2013/02/14/the-pilgrims-as-illegal-aliens/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120711134710.htm
Debla, I never inferred that, either! You either accept that all throughout human history, there has been an ebb and flow of population and governments, for various reasons, and here we are. Or you don't and you try to rewrite history to conform to your views, which is clearly what the extreme-liberal agenda is about. Perhaps you should be grateful to live in the world now, where we have laws and governments to protect us; where we have the daily comforts of which we have become accustomed instead of trying to defend the "training" in this article, when it is at best, asinine. At worst, it is an attempted rewrite of history and spreading propaganda, and for what purpose? Your guess is as good as mine, but it isn't benign. All signs point to a breakdown in the life and government as it has existed for the past 236 years.
Yes horrible things have happened in the course of history. Does that mean we can excuse it, and refuse to acknowledge parallels? No.